Maria Sanchez Yatriki

Founder

Hecho en México, Maria attributes her passion for community stewardship to her beginnings on her family’s 300-year-old ranch in rural Tlaxcala, Mexico, surrounded by towering maguey plants and indigenous farming communities. Raised by parents who are politicians and civil servants, she spent her childhood touring the region and gaining first-hand insight into the environmental, political, social and cultural implications of land development.

At 20, she moved to Barcelona to cinematography and worked in TV and film production for several years, producing Inside The Beat – a series of mini-documentaries for Pulse Radio which initiated her long love affair with the music industry. During this time, she also founded My Organic Spirits, an import and distribution company still in operation in Spain, and co-produced the first Sacbe gatherings with her partner and several friends. She worked as a project manager and collaborator for a variety of brands and organizations before moving back to Mexico to reconnect with her homeland and her mission. Her experiences across various fields of production illuminated the need for a more holistic and purpose-driven approach to event curation and community design. In 2018, this mission coalesced in the birth of Inner Refuge: an experiential production company that specializes in uniting people and igniting change through ancestral knowledge, energy work, and practices that guide human consciousness towards realignment with the planet.

Informed by the principles of Shakti leadership, Maria envisions her work as part of a greater energetic shift on earth – wherein feminine energy is being redirected as an agent of change and evolution, to meet the pressing social and ecological needs of this moment. Sacbe has grown from a small charitable party in the jungle to a robust Burning Man theme camp and a sprawling network of international artists and change-makers. Inner Refuge continues to host a growing number of intimate gatherings around the world, centered on ancestral teachings, spiritual growth and environmental wellness. Maria lives and works in Mexico, where she is focused on designing permanent communities, curating sustainable networks, and collaborating on projects that are generative, creative, inclusive, and empathic.