Jose is an adventurous entrepreneur at heart and father of five, he is the driving force behind Arkana’s operations and growth initiatives. Originally from Mexico, Jose grew up in a conservative middle class home. At 18, his best friend presented him with Carlos Castañeda’s Journey to Ixtlan, the book that profoundly impacted his life, awakening his curiosity. He started questioning everything around him without finding any satisfying answers.

Frustrated, he put his curiosity on hold for years, buying into the conventional story of many: Marry up, have kids, and make a lot of money – what seemed to be the formula of success. For a number of years, it seemed like he was on the right track. He started his family and after graduating with an MBA from Harvard Business School made strides climbing the ladder in the corporate world, first as an Investment Banker in Wall Street and more recently as a Real Estate developer. Under all accounts, he seemed very successful, however, deep inside, it was a different story.  He battled with depression, having a sense that something was missing in his life.

In 2012, after both his personal life and business spiraled out of control, he found his way to the Amazon in need of deep healing and discovered the world of plant medicine. His first encounter with Ayahuasca was healing and profound, providing many of the missing answers and helping him find true meaning and purpose.  With a new perspective, Jose reinvented his existing business into a procurement agency that outfitted multi-million dollar hotels and turned his personal life around. In the following years, he deepened his work with plants, doing several plant dietas along the way, and even venturing to the forests of Gabon in Africa to be initiated as a Bwiti practitioner.

Today he lives a happy, simple, and fulfilled life in the service of others. He insists that each person is responsible for crafting his/her own story rather than buying into social norms. He has rewritten his success formula to include love, faith, and hope at its core. At the helm of Arkana, he dreams of global expansion, bringing the world of plant medicines and spirituality to those who need it most.