Clementina Duron was born and raised in Salinas, California. She received her BA at UC Berkeley in 1971 and received a Masters in Education from Stanford and Harvard. Clementina worked for 15 years as a teacher and another 15 years as a principal in elementary and middle schools in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco Unified School Districts. Duron worked with parents to create the first charter school in Oakland in 1993. She became certified in Albany’s CERT and has worked to help her community with emergency preparedness.
During Duron’s time at UC Berkeley, she lived in an affordable co-op on Berkeley Northside where she says she was “probably one of the only people of color there.” She was invited to a MASC meeting in January of 1969 by Ysidro Macias where they discussed the TWLF’s plan of action. She describes her role as being a “foot soldier” for the coalition.
“Just really doing the everyday necessary stuff to show the solidarity; like, being available at 8 o’clock in the morning at the Chicano Center on Channing right near Telegraph to either pick up fliers or to get, you know, the posters… and be ready to be on picket line starting at 8 o’clock in the morning. Usually in front of Sproul or at the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph is sometimes where we started to pass out leaflets or flyers to students coming on, asking them to respect our picket line.”
Duron participated in the TWLF’s famous serpentine marches that would run across campus and through buildings and active classrooms. At times, she would give speeches to students at the co-ops to update them on the current happenings of the strike.
On February 5th, following the attack of peaceful protestors by plainclothes officers, Governor Ronald Reagan declared a state of extreme emergency to encourage Highway Patrol officers to assemble on campus. During the subsequent protests, officers attacked and beat anyone in the vicinity of the protest and used teargas and mace against protestors beginning on February 19th. It was the first time chemical agents were been used against students. The conflict between cops and gatherers spread out onto Bancroft and Telegraph. According to Duron, the teargas affected everyone on campus indiscriminately. The secretary’s union joined the strike shortly after the gas attacks and wrote letters to officials stating the force used against the students was unjust. “That was how, on the way, we started picking up allies little by little throughout the strikes.” Duron goes on to explain that once white people on campus were affected by police violence, professors began to take action. On February 27th, Gov. Ronald Reagan called the National Guard to campus in an attempt to intimidate the TWLF protestors. Duron recalls them setting up and staying behind the co-ops on the north side of campus. When it came time to vote on whether or not to implement a Third World College, Duron recalls, “The academic senate really didn't have a lot of choice because some of our subversives had gone the night before and had put glue on their seats!”
When asked to reflect on the impacts of being a member of the TWLF, Duron says they were forced to become leaders. Their experiences in the strike helped them to make their way in their respective fields of work and that same strength stayed with them throughout their lives.
“We may not realize this but we obviously had an impact that we never had dreamt about or thought about when we were struggling day-to-day on the picket lines. The fact that ethnic studies is just a very powerful movement and it’s something that we have to continue fighting for today because just like in the past, today the forces that are against ethnic studies are so powerful and want to destroy it. That's why we, us elders, continue the struggle today.”
Most recently, Duron was involved with the Ethnic Studies model curriculum movement in Sacramento, pushing to make ES courses a requirement for students in California. The model curriculum was finally adopted in March 2021.