Raquel Welch 'was encouraged to hide her Hispanic roots'

Bang Showbiz on Mar 8, 2025

Published in Women

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Raquel Welch was encouraged by people in Hollywood to downplay her Hispanic roots.

The actress - who passed away in February 2023, aged 82 - is the focus of a new CW documentary, titled 'I am Raquel Welch', which reveals how she was urged to hide her Bolivian ancestry.

Gregory Nava, a director who worked with the actress on 'American Family: Journey of Dreams', the TV drama series, said: "She was saying they wanted to change her hair, her look, her name.

"Her manager at the time was saying, 'No, you don't want to come off as being Hispanic.' They wanted to change her first name from Raquel to, I think, Debbie Welch. Very much in the Sandra Dee, Doris Day tradition, you know. But she refused."

The movie star's birth name was Jo Raquel Welch Tejada, but she ultimately adopted the surname of her first husband, James Welch.

Brian Eugenio, a cultural historian at Princeton University, says in the documentary: "Her father was a structural engineer who was a Bolivian immigrant to the United States who married an Anglo woman [Josephine Sarah Hall], and so, she was raised as fully aware that she was Bolivian.

"As she tells the story, her father refused to speak Spanish in the house 'cause he didn't want his kids to have an accent."

In a throwback clip in the documentary, Raquel admitted to feeling that "part of [her] that was missing" because of her dad's approach to life.

The actress - who became a global icon in the 60s - explained: "The part of me that was missing was the part of me that my father chose to just amputate out of our lives."