Lucia Tovar Pictures, Biography, Images, Videos, News

Olga Lucia Tovar was born in Cali, Colombia, in December 1981. She grew up in Cúcuta, a town in eastern Colombia near the Venezuelan border. Lucia’s family, which consisted of her younger brother, and their mother and grandmother, was very poor. Although Lucia’s immediate family was small, the Tovars had a large extended family -- Lucia has 17 aunts and uncles and 40 cousins.

During her teens, Lucia worked hard as a messenger and courier for her uncle’s shoe factory. While her classmates spent their time shopping and hanging out, Lucia rode her bicycle all over town, delivering mail and doing other errands, all in order to pay for school and support the rest of her family. As much as she loved her native land, Lucia wanted a better future than Colombia could provide, and, like many other girls in her difficult situation, she dreamed of coming to America.

Once Lucia finished high school, she began working to make her dream a reality. It took a few years of sacrifice and some difficult choices -- she had to leave her family behind -- but when Lucia was 21, she made it to America at last. She settled in Arizona and spent a year as a waitress at Hooters; Lucia had first applied for the job after seeing some Hooters girls depicted in a movie and thought that she possessed the goods to do it too.

Lucia’s first photo shoot happened while working as a Hooters girl. Her photos made it into a Hooters calendar, which soon gave Lucia the confidence to enter a modeling contest sponsored by Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen. She won, thanks to her tanned and toned physique -- although, Lucia herself was surprised by her success. Next, Lucia was invited to Las Vegas to interview with Hawaiian Tropic executives, and she got a job modeling for and promoting the sunscreen.