Roberto Angleró

Roberto Angleró
Born	September 12, 1929 Fajardo, Puerto Rico
Genres	Bolero, Salsa and Afro-Puerto Rican music genres
Occupation(s)	composer and singer

Roberto Angleró Pepín (born September 12, 1929) is a Puerto Rican music composer and singer, notable for writing various hit songs in the bolero, salsa and Afro-Puerto Rican music genres. He is known for having written various major Spanish language music singles such as “La Pared”, “Si Dios fuera negro”, “La boda de ella”, “Soy Boricua” and others.

Angleró was born in Fajardo, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast. His father Juan, an itinerant carpenter, was originally from Maricao, on the western side of the island; his mother Carmen was a seamstress. Always moving where work was available, his father moved to Barrio Obrero, one of San Juan’s working-class neighborhoods when the couple separated. Plena singer Manuel Jiménez, “Canario”, lived in his same street, and Angleró would attend rehearsals by Jiménez’s group. Catalino Curet Alonso was a friend since childhood; Curet was later persuaded to become a postal worker by Angleró’s cousin.

Angleró’s aunt, who lived nearby, had a small but diverse record collection, and listening to these records he was inspired to become a singer, although stage fright would sometimes prevent him from appearing in amateur programs such as Rafael Quiñones Vidal’s after showing up. He also became an avid baseball player and track and field athlete, and took percussion and trumpet lessons.

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.

While in New York, Angleró was drafted into the United States Air Force. He served four years, saw action in South Korea during the Korean War, and was eventually stationed at Air Force bases in Alabama and Texas. Angleró faced multiple racial discrimination incidents while serving in the Southern United States; a particularly acrimonious one occurred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a restaurant owner refused to serve him dinner and later called military police to have him and his Jewish-American Air Force buddy escorted out of the state. 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.

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