In June 1712 María announced to the people of Tzeltal that the Virgin Mary had appeared to her with the request that a chapel be built in her honor.
On August 8, María de la Candelaria stood in front of the chapel and told a multitude of people that the Virgin had ordered the annihilation of the Spaniards and of other forms of Spanish authority including all kinds of tribute, the clergy, the bishop, and the mayor.
[4] Indians from thirty two communities including Tzeltal, Tzotzil, and Ch'ol rose up in a multiethnic rebellion against the Spaniards that lasted about three and a half months.
Alongside Sebastian Gomez de la Gloria -a Tzotzil Indian man from Chenalhó who claimed to have risen to Heaven-, María de la Candelaria led the rebel army and appointed Indian vicars who replaced Spanish clergy and preached the miracle of the apparition in churches of rebel towns.
[5] On November 21 the Spaniards recaptured Cancuc and María de la Candelaria escaped with her father and other family members.
[6] In spite of her central role in the Tzeltal Rebellion, María de la Candelaria appears to have been forgotten by the native people of Chiapas.