 In 1882, he was named a member of the Faculty of Philosophy & Humanities of the "Universidad de Chile", and in 1889 he became professor of constitutional rights at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.Because of the perceived need for Catholic elements to combat liberals in the press, Cifuentes made contributions to various Chilean periodicals.Together with his former student and fellow Catholic intellectual Zorobabel Rodríguez, Cifuentes founded the daily newspaper "El Independiente" ("The Independent") in 1864.