Born Jo Raquel Tejada in 1940 in Chicago, Welch was the daughter of a Bolivian-born father and an American mother. Welch didn't speak Spanish fluently, but later on in her 70s she nonetheless stated (per Telegram), "I still feel very, very Hispanic. The essence of who I am is a Latina," continuing, "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." Growing up, as The Famous People says, Welch wanted to be a ballerina but was told she didn't have the physique for it. By all accounts not cut out for cold environments, as she said in her autobiography, per ABC News, she felt right at home in California. "My baby brain thawed and I became a much more smiley toddler in the Golden State of Boredom."

In high school, Welch went on to become a cheerleader, perform in school plays, and take dance lessons, as Biography says. She grew up glued to the radio, then the TV, loving images of singing and dancing, saying "I had a highly emotional nature and loved being swept away on flights of imagination." Wins in beauty contests, such as 1957's Miss Fairest of the Fair, spearheaded her transition to film. By the time of filming "One Million Years B.C.," facing an uphill battle to be taken seriously as an actress, she was already a mother of two.

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