Most people walking down Relox Street in the historic center of San Miguel de Allende notice the building immediately. The pink stone façade is lined with carved animals. Lions sit on the roofline. Birds, elephants, horses and other creatures march along the cornice. Above the central balcony is a Star of David and the words “Arca de Noé.” Locals know it simply as La Casa de los Animales or El Arca de Noé. What many residents do not realize is that this building was once the home and business of the first Jewish family to settle in San Miguel.

From Damascus to Mexico

Isaac Cohen was born in Damascus, Syria in 1890. Like many Jews in the early twentieth century facing persecution and limited opportunities, he left the Middle East in search of a better life. He left sailing the seas not knowing in what country in the Americas he would land.

He arrived in Mexico City around 1920 with little money, no formal education, but something very valuable, an instinct for trade. Though he could not read or write, he could sell anything.

Rachel Turquie, who was also born in Damascus, nineteen years after Isaac in 1909, also arrived in Mexico City, with her father, a few years after Isaac. The two of them married in 1926.

Soon afterward, Isaac observed to his young wife that life in Mexico City was expensive and difficult, and he proposed moving to a smaller town. He took her to see three small towns and she knew with its beauty and charm San Miguel was the best and chose it.

It was 1927, during the turbulent years of the Cristero War, when the couple moved to San Miguel. According to family members, on Rachel’s first night in town she heard gunfire. Isaac told her it was fireworks. The next morning, she saw bodies hanging from trees. Overcoming those shocks, in a country whose language she did not speak, she built a life.

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