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Los Partidos Políticos
In 1875, José Julián Acosta collected his political writings from El Progreso and published them as a single volume under the title Los Partidos Políticos. The articles were originally written in September and October of 1870, in the immediate aftermath of the September Revolution in Spain and the December 1868 decree that gave Puerto Rico its first real opportunity at representation in the Spanish Córtes.
Acosta wrote them as a deliberate act of political education. Puerto Rico was about to send deputies to a constituent assembly for the first time. He believed the people were unprepared for the exercise of liberty not because they lacked the capacity for it, but because they had never been given the institutional conditions in which to practice it. These articles were his attempt to provide those conditions through the only instrument he fully trusted: the press.
The copy archived here was recovered from the Library of Congress in April 2026. It was printed at Fortaleza 21, San Juan, directly adjacent to the seat of colonial power. Acosta was not writing from the margins. That is the posture this publication inherits.
"Para las sociedades no existen mas que dos caminos, dos sistemas: ó el régimen del silencio con todos sus dolores, ó el de la libre emisión del pensamiento con toda su virilidad. In servitute dolor, in libertate labor."
Article I · September 7, 1870"Las banderías, con su esclusivismo é intransigencia, han sido constantemente funestas al progreso y á la libertad." [Factions, through their exclusivism and intransigence, have been constantly fatal to progress and liberty.]
Article I · September 7, 1870"El escritor que se vé siempre ante la opinión pública, cuyos fallos respeta, y que teme la contradiccion, si se siente refrenado y dado que no se extravíe, porque hablamos de los hombres tales como son y no de ángeles, nunca falta quien rectifique ó combata sus opiniones."
Article I · September 7, 1870"La eleccion de Diputados constituyentes es el acto político mas importante en la vida de un pueblo, por la razon de que en ella se verifica la delegacion de la Soberanía."
Article V · 1870On the Nature of Political Parties and the Two Paths of Society
Acosta's foundational argument: society faces only two systems. The regime of silence, which produces suffering, compressed passion, violence, and corruption. Or the free emission of thought, which allows grievances to surface, reforms to proceed peacefully, and revolutions to be avoided. He establishes the distinction between true political parties, natural and necessary organisms of free societies, and "banderías": factions driven by exclusivism and intransigence that are fatal to progress. The Latin motto that anchors El Progreso — In servitute dolor, in libertate labor — appears here for the first time.
Puerto Rico's Colonial History and the Origins of Political Division
Acosta traces Puerto Rico's political history from the earliest colonization of San Juan. He examines how the rivalries of Ponce de León and Diego Díaz, and the machinations of Admiral Diego Colón, divided and weakened the nascent colony. He argues that the gradual centralization of governance in the metropolis, at the expense of local institutions, is the original structural error whose consequences the island still bears. He holds up the early municipal structures of San Juan as models of relative autonomy that were systematically dismantled.
Ramón Power and the Birth of Puerto Rico's Liberal Party
Acosta turns to the moment he considers Puerto Rico's first genuine political breakthrough: the election of Ramón Power as the island's representative to the Spanish Córtes in 1810. He describes how from this election emerged, spontaneously and without external direction, the first true liberal party in Puerto Rico. These reformers acted without personal interest, driven by ideas absorbed from Enlightenment philosophy. They succeeded peacefully in achieving significant reforms including expanded commercial freedoms and municipal autonomy. Acosta holds Power's work as the model for what principled political engagement looks like.
The Reformers of Cádiz: Aurora Fugaz
Acosta calls the liberal reformers of Cádiz a "fugaz aurora" — a fleeting dawn. The constitution of 1812 briefly opened Puerto Rico to freedoms it had never known. By 1814, the storm descended: Napoleon's fall, the return of absolutism, the restoration of the Inquisition. Puerto Rico entered decades of silence under the Decree of 1825, which gave the Governor unlimited powers. Acosta refuses cynicism. He documents the defeat because he believes the aspiration to progress always survives in the heart of societies. By 1866-67, reform movements resurged. The revolution of September 1868 changed everything.
The Elections of 1869 and the Failure of the First Diputación
Acosta's most devastating analysis. He examines Puerto Rico's first elections for the Constituent Córtes in June 1869 and diagnoses why they failed to produce effective representation. Two causes: (1) the complete ignorance of the population about electoral practices, since virtually no one had ever participated in an election before; and (2) the non-existence of true political parties, and therefore no organization or discipline among voters. The confusion between "assimilation" and "autonomy" platforms was extreme even within camps. Puerto Rico's deputies arrived in Madrid without a unified platform, without discipline, and without the organized political will to resist. The conclusion: the delegation of sovereignty requires preparation, education, and institutional structure. Without them, representation is theater.
This document is held by the Library of Congress, Chronicling America / Hispanic Periodicals collection. Los Partidos Políticos: Artículos publicados en "El Progreso" por José Julián Acosta. Puerto Rico: Imprenta y Librería de Sancérrit, Fortaleza 21, 1875. 38 pages. Recovered and archived by El Progreso, April 2026.
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