The political and sociological consequences of Betances' actions are definite and unequivocal. He was the first openly nationalistic political leader in Puerto Rico, and one of the first pro-independence leaders in the island nation's history (Among Puerto Ricans, Antonio Valero de Bernabé and Andrés Vizcarrondo—earlier pro-independence leaders for the Latin American revolutions—could not achieve the success Betances had years later within Puerto Rico). The "Grito de Lares", using an often-quoted phrase that dates from 1868, ""was the birth of Puerto Rican nationality, with Betances as its obstetrician"". Nationalistic expressions in Puerto Rico—be they public affirmations, newspaper articles, poems, town meetings or outright revolts—were almost nonexistent before the 1810s election of Ramón Power y Giralt to the Spanish Cortes, most of them were defined within the framework of loyalty to Spain as a metropolitan power (and thus subordinate to Spanish rule over Puerto Rico), and many of them were quickly suppressed by the Spanish government, which feared an escalation of nationalistic sentiment that, in other countries, led to the independence movements of Latin America.