Angelitos Negros (Little Black Angels) performed by Roberta Flack

In the culmination of this profoundly moving lamentation, Roberta Flack transfigures into an angel herself, harkening, calling all the black angels to unify and  testify to the truth of their being, their entity as one and as a multitude. Listen all the way through. The lyrics are below in Spanish and English. 
Angelitos Negros
Cantado por Roberta Flack
Poema de Andres Eloy Blanco.

Pintor nacido en mi tierra
Con el pincel extranjero
Pintor que sigues el rumbo
De tantos pintores viejos

Aun que la virgen sea blanca
Píntame angelitos negros
Que también se van al cielo
Todos los negritos buenos

Pintor si pintas con amor
Por que desprecias su color
Si sabes que en el cielo
También los quiere DIOS

Pintor de santos y alcobas
Si tienes alma en el cuerpo
Por que al pintar esos cuadros
Te olvidaste de los negros

Siempre que pintas iglesias
Pintas angelitos bellos
Pero nunca te acordaste
De pintar un ángel negro

Pintor si pintas con amor
Por que desprecias su color
Si sabes que en el cielo
También los quiere DIOS

Pintor de santos y alcobas
Si tienes alma en el cuerpo
Por que al pintar esos cuadros
Te olvidaste de los negros
​
Siempre que pintas iglesias
Pintas angelitos bellos
Pero nunca te acordaste
De pintar un ángel negro

Aun que la virgen sea blanca
Píntame angelitos negros
Que también se van al cielo
Todos los angelitos, angelitos, angelitos 

Negros
la la la
la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la...
Little Black Angels
Performed by Roberta Flack
Poem by Andres Eloy Blanco

Painter born in my land
With the brush of a foreigner
Painter who followed the direction
From so many painters of old

Even if the virgin is white
Paint little black angels for me
Since the blacks who are good people
Also go to heaven
​
Painter if you paint with love
Why do you despise their color
If you know that in heaven
God also loves them

Painter of saints and altars
If you have a soul in your body
Why, when painting those paintings
Did you forget about the blacks

Whenever you painted churches
you painted beautiful little angels
But you never remembered
To paint a black angel

Painter if you paint with love
Why do you despise their color
If you know that in heaven
God also loves them

Painter of saints and altars
If you have a soul in your body
Why, when painting those paintings
Did you forget about the blacks
​
Whenever you painted churches
You painted beautiful angels
But you never remembered
To paint a black angel

Even if the virgin is white
Paint little black angels for me
Since they also go to heaven
All the little angels, little angels, little angels

Black
la la la
la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la...
​
A Couple of Comments

The poet speaks to the painter, who shares his country and black skin, and, instead of painting little black angels, has followed the path of so many artists before him, betraying his own people.

The poet says, "even if the Virgin is white" meaning he knows full well she is not.  But even if she were, it is not a reason to neglect painting black angels, since those people are loved by God, too.

The poet asks, "Why do you despise your own color?"

That's a good question whose answer might be revealed by further study of those black artists who chose to portray biblical figures as white, such as Mary Edmonia Lewis, a black female sculptress who portrayed Hagar, Sara's Egyptian slave, and other biblical figures with obviously white features.

It turns out that "Edmonia" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907)  was born in New York, a free black woman of African-Haitian and Native American parents named "Wildfire."

"Until I was twelve years old I led this wandering life, fishing and swimming ... and making moccasins. I was then sent to school for three years but was declared to be wild,—they could do nothing with me."
— Edmonia Lewis

Through a series of events, Edmonia attended Oberlin college and there was falsely accused of poisoning two white classmates. She was beaten and left for dead in the woods. She left the school and moved to study sculpture in Rome. I wonder if that event - and the rampant racism of the larger culture she navigated within - had anything to do with her decision to portray the biblical character of Hagar, the Egyptian slave of Sarai who gives birth to Ishmael with Abraham, with white features?