or a location for female expression. The Chicana feminist ideology that took hold during this time aligned itself with American East coast interpretations of femininity. It denounced patriarchal male domination of women, both in private and public life. It also demanded accountability for actions that hindered the ability of female community members from having access to occupational, educational, political, and social opportunities and expression. However, women in the Mexican-American community faced unique challenges being members of a historically oppressed class of citizens, and focused on issues that carried with it racial and ethnic components. Women such as Gloria Arellanes and Gracie and Hilda Reyes often worked in concert with the larger Chicano civil rights movement in order to achieve their goals. The coordination of both males and females in the Mexican-American community allowed "Chicana women to find a collective voice through feminism and began to question machismo (sexist) attitudes, articulating their own criticisms and concerns involving issues of gender and sexuality, and organizing around these issues". Some of the motives of the organization's founders stressed that they did not intend to reveal the Browns Berets, though some their contemporaries felt that it was a direct challenge Brown Berets as an institution. Arellanes argued that, " We envision strong women who would be supportive and always back one another up. Was it a feminist group?...I didn't call myself a feminist, nor did the other beret women, but in retrospect we were feminist in fact and in action". Expressions of Chicano Nationalism The American civil rights period was a critical stepping stone for the Mexican American community to carve out a sense of cultural or Chicano nationalism that would be used as a platform to create a shared identity and respect. Creating a shared identity was important for the Chicano movement as a whole, as a result the Las Adelitas de Aztlán would be used as way to express these ideas. The name of the organization was chosen carefully to achieve this goal, as "a feminist symbol of the Mexican Revolution, La Adelita was the name of a woman soldier, a soldadera, who followed the troops, helped set up camp, and cooked for the soldiers". Making reference to the Mexican Revolution invoked nationalist sentiment amongst Mexican-Americans by appealing to a history where the Mexican people fought to preserve their way of life, and also the fight against tyranny or persecution. In addition,