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