Given the title of state professor (profesor de Estado), he was named director of a Quillota public school in 1875.
On June 3, 1837, Colonel José Antonio Vidaurre, commander of the Maipo regiment, captured and imprisoned Portales while he was reviewing troops at the army barracks in Quillota.
In 1888, he was the editor of the Quillota newspaper El Correo.
He was elected MP for Quillota three times between 1855 and 1864, integrating the Standing Committee on Finance and Industry, as well as Education and Welfare.