Raquel Welch talks about her Hispanic pride; recalls refusing to change name to ‘Debbie’
*Like so many Latinos in the U.S, Raquel Welch (Jo-Raquel Tejada) said her father didn’t speak Spanish at home because he wanted to spare his children the difficulty and prejudice against people who spoke with an accent. She was named after her grandmother and refused to change her name to Debbie, as requested by Hollywood producers. VL
By Edwin Tamar, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jo-Raquel Tejada remembers one of the first times that she had to take a stand for her identity.
She came home from school one day, tired of being called Jo. She didn’t like that name and felt more comfortable with Raquel. The next day, the girl’s white mother, Josephine, who had named her Jo after herself, went to the school and asked that her daughter’s name be changed to simply Raquel.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]”I think if you have an Anglo-Saxon background and you are of Latino descent, the Latin side wins out. It’s something about your temperament and your essence.” -Raquel Welch[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]Unknowingly, the girl had won a key battle about her Hispanic heritage, an issue she largely ignored after taking her first husband’s last name and becoming a sex symbol known as Raquel Welch.
Even though she doesn’t speak much Spanish, the 74-year-old actress says now that her Latino background is indeed part of who she is.
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[Photo courtesy of gotceleb.com]
