Jose is an adventurous entrepreneur and father of five, and he plays a key role in guiding Arkana’s operations and growth. Born in Mexico, he grew up in a conservative middle-class household. At 18, a close friend gave him Carlos Castañeda’s Journey to Ixtlan, a book that changed the course of his life by awakening a deep curiosity. From that moment on, he began questioning everything around him, though no answers felt truly satisfying.
For many years, he set that curiosity aside and followed the conventional path many people are taught to trust: marry, have children, and earn a great deal of money. At first, it seemed to work. He built a family and, after earning an MBA from Harvard Business School, advanced in the corporate world, first as an investment banker on Wall Street and later as a real estate developer. By all outward measures, he appeared highly successful, yet internally he struggled with depression and the persistent feeling that something essential was missing.
In 2012, after both his personal life and business had spiraled out of control, he traveled to the Amazon in search of profound healing and encountered the world of plant medicine. His first Ayahuasca experience was deeply transformative, offering many of the answers he had been seeking and helping him discover a clearer sense of meaning and purpose. With this new perspective, Jose transformed his existing business into a procurement agency serving multi-million-dollar hotels and also began to rebuild his personal life. Over the years that followed, he deepened his relationship with plant medicine, completing several plant dietas and even traveling to the forests of Gabon in Africa to be initiated as a Bwiti practitioner.
Today, he lives a simple, happy, and fulfilled life in service to others. He believes that each person is responsible for shaping their own story rather than accepting social expectations as their truth. His definition of success now places love, faith, and hope at its center. Leading Arkana, he continues to envision global expansion, bringing the worlds of plant medicine and spirituality to those who need them most.