You can try the following on Yosemite in the Terminal. Works in Mavericks, but may not in Yosemite.
defaults find ApplePressAndHoldEnabled
If it returns 0 or not found, then:
Quit the application in which you were unable to use the long keypress.
defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true
killall Finder
If the prolonged keyboard press still does not produce results, then in System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources, add a Spanish Keyboard, and then reboot. Try the long keypress again, and hopefully, you now have the pop-up accents.