Angel Botello planned to continue his studies in Spain, but was was forced to interrupt them with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on July 18, 1936. Angel Botello served under General Enrique Lister, who was founder of the Spanish Communist Worker’s Party (PCOE), after enlisting in his platoon as a cartographer. He and his brother Manuel joined the Republican Army, but the Nationalists ended up winning and his brother died on the war field. In 1939, the Spanish Civil War ended with the victory of General Francisco Franco and the fascists. After the war ended, Angel Botello found it impossible to stay in Spain after fighting for the losing side and he had to flee persecution. The artist returned to France to find his family living in a refugee camp. In France, the Botello family stayed in a refugee camp for some time, but were soon attempting escape to Mexico under the funding of the Spanish Republican Government.

Shortly afterwards Angel Botello and his family boarded the french ship La Salle en route to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. After many detours of these ships, the Botello family finally reached Santo Domingo. Like many other members of the Spanish intelligentsia and artist community, Angel Botello and his family were looking to begin a new life in exile for supporting the libertarian ideas and democratic system the new dictatorship did not tolerate. In Santo Domingo, Angel Botello met a group of artists exiled from Spain and he benefited greatly from their companionship. Shortly after his arrival Angel Botello was given commissions by a government office and a daily newspaper. These projects earned the artist enough money to organize a solo show of his work, where his paintings were very well received and resulted in a commercial success. Angel Botello was quickly welcomed and accepted by the artistic community, finding immediate recognition. Several of the paintings created by Angel Botello in the Dominican Republic were included in the Latin American Art Exposition organized by Henry Wallace, who would later become Vice President of the United States. In 1940, the exposition at the Riverside Museum was one of the activities of the New York Fair.

In the same year, Angel Botello spent eight months in Cuba, where by 1943 the painter had earned his lifelong nickname of “The Caribbean Gauguin” for his use of bold colors and depictions of island life. It was coined by Jose Gomez-Sicre who was a famous Cuban art critic and an advisor to Alfred Hamilton Barr, Jr., who was the first director of The Museum of Modern Art. The nickname first appeared in a mention by Jose Gomez-Sicre in a Havana newspaper for the similarities of techniques and shared sensitivities between Angel Botello and the french post-impressionist and symbolist artist Paul Gauguin. Along with Picasso and other artists of the period, particularly those in Spanish exile, the drawings and paintings of Angel Botello reflect the search for new means of expression found in the principal artistic movements of the first half of the century from post impressionism to fauvism.

Between 1940-1943, Angel Botello would travel extensively throughout the the Caribbean where he lived on several different islands. He visited Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba where he painted and held several more solo shows of his work that led him to greater success. Upon his return to Santo Domingo, the paintings of Angel Botello were admired by the Peruvian ambassador, who invited the painter to exhibit in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1944. This island made a special impression on Angel Botello and he was immediately fascinated by the tropical scenery. On July 9, 1944, Angel Botello returned to Haiti under an invite to paint the president and his family. During this trip, Angel Botello met and married his wife Christiane Auguste on January 24, 1945. After his marriage to Christiane, Angel Botello changed his artistic plans to move to Mexico to meet with Diego Rivera, who was widely considered to be the greatest Mexican artist, and stayed in Haiti.

Angel Botello designed and built a home for his new wife in Petionville. In his new surroundings, Angel Botello would spend the next ten years painting the women of Haiti where he became increasingly recognized and critically acclaimed. For more than a decade his art work was influenced by the colors and energy of Haitian life. The Haitian landscapes of Angel Botello were painted with his characteristic awareness of design in the pure, bright colors of the tropics. The Haitian landscapes and figure studies of Angel Botello are considered to be some of the best works of the artist. Also, he developed his woodworking talent while in Haiti. As a result, Angel Botello is considered to be the father of Haitian wood carving and taught Haitian artists his techniques.

In 1953, Angel Botello moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico where the artist would live and work for the rest of his life. By this time, he already had gained international recognition in the world of plastic arts. Angel Botello became a pioneer of the local art scene in Puerto Rico by opening one of the first art galleries on the island. He and his family opened their first gallery at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, followed by several other galleries over the years in the Metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although his main subject changed over the years, Angel Botello continued to paint Haitian women after his arrival in Puerto Rico. Angel Botello is often quoted saying that the tropics opened a new world for him, stimulating his creativity with its bright colors. The myriad facets of what sometimes appears to be the same being are a constant in the work of Angel Botello throughout his career. Other constants in the paintings of Angel Botello include: nudes in richly ornamental settings reminiscent of Matisse; heads joined rhythmically in non-representational compositions; semi-schematic figures seen against landscape, where figures are pared down to elements of a larger design.