Although the seeds of both proactive government repression against the Puerto Rican independence movement had been planted before the Grito de Lares, and its aftermath only guaranteed the surge of autonomism as a political alternative in the island, the level of cultural and social development of a collective Puerto Rican conscience was almost a direct consequence of the event. To put it simply, if there is any nationalistic sentiment in Puerto Rico in the present day, almost all of it can be traced back to Betances and his political work.