Raquel Welch meets Bolivian family

Raquel Welch meets Bolivian family

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia: Film star Raquel Welch, who has said she
regrets not showcasing her Hispanic heritage until later in life,
has made her first visit to her ancestral homeland of Bolivia.

The 61-year-old sex symbol born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago to
a Bolivian father and American mother, arrived in this poor,
landlocked South American nation under heavy security and was to
meet in private with the family of her father, an architect who
moved to the United States in the 1930s.

Welch starred in films including One Million Years B.C. and
Myra Breckinridge, but was just as famous for her pinup bikini
posters.

"Raquel said she wanted to meet her Bolivian family," her
uncle Aldo Tejada Urquizo said.

The actress was to receive an award from the Ibero-American
Film Festival in the tropical town of Santa Cruz at the foot of
the Andean mountain range. --Reuters