As to dissuade Roberto from having his hobbies distract him from obtaining a trade or profession, Angleró’s father sent him to live with family in The Bronx in New York City in 1942.
He became a mechanic, his life-long profession, but for a while he also tried his luck as a percussionist and dancer at local Latino clubs such as the Palladium, and even received drumming classes from Max Roach.
Angleró recalls that, while being a proud veteran of the United States’ armed forces, incidents such as this one made him become a fervent supporter of independence for Puerto Rico.
These incidents also shaped his views about race relations, most of which were humorously expressed in one of his major hits, a Puerto Rican bomba song called Si Dios fuera negro (If God were black), the melody of which, he claims, came to him in a dream.
After returning to Puerto Rico, and having overcome his stage fright issues, Angleró played with a few neighborhood trios and quartets in Barrio Obrero, until he became a part of Lito Peña’s Orquesta Panamericana.
He sang with the orchestra, played minor percussion, and also started writing songs for the band, with the assistance of Peña and his long-time pianist, Héctor Urdaneta, to whom he claims were instrumental for any success he has attained as a composer.
His band's most famous inception, Tierra Negra, was responsible for recording “Si Dios fuera negro”,[1] a humorous take on mildly racist figures of speech in Spanish where references to white and black are switched for comic effect.