Mr. V’s Feast

In the middle of a fourth-grade Thanksgiving celebration in Montebello on Wednesday, one woman in Room 13 started to cry.

“I told my kids, this is pretty much their Thanksgiving and their Christmas,” said the woman, the mother of a Fremont Elementary School student who was busy gobbling up enchiladas and turkey. “I can’t buy anything for them.”

In a school where administrators estimate that 70% of the students participate in free or reduced meal programs, those in at least one classroom are ensured a Thanksgiving feast every year.

Pete Villescas, 43, has organized the special Thanksgiving lunch for his students and their parents since he began teaching at Fremont 21 years ago. Parent volunteers provide the turkey and all the trimmings. Villescas provides the inspiration.

“This is so important because at this age, things like this mean so much to the students,” said Gloria Baez, 17, a senior at Montebello High School and one of “Mr. V’s” former students. Baez said she remembers sharing in the fourth-grade feast with several students whose families could not afford their own Thanksgiving dinner.

While the children were excited by the mounds of food, Baez said she knew it would be the teacher, and not the food, that the students would remember.

And Baez said she was thankful that her half-sister, Sarah Caballero, 9, wouldn’t miss out. Although she was scheduled to enroll in another fourth-grade teacher’s class this year, Sarah’s family begged the school to let her transfer.

“She is so excited about school now,” said Cilicia Caballero, 14, another of Sarah’s older sisters (and a former Villescas student). “He makes everything so fun. They feel so important doing this.”

Parents setting up the buffet table of cranberries, yams and mashed potatoes praised their children’s teacher.

“He’s really open, he tries to work with all the students,” said Yvette Vieyra, 28, who stayed up late Tuesday night to prepare the class’s 19-pound turkey.

“They’re going to start calling him ‘St. Pete’ pretty soon,” said Fremont Principal Arthur Revueltas, as he carved the bird.

“You’re not kidding,” added parent Carolyn Caballero. “He’s wonderful.”

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But Villescas remains humble.

“I’m just so thankful that the good Lord has given me genuine love for them,” he said, standing in the middle of his colorfully decorated classroom. “A lot of my students come from broken homes. Sometimes I’m their father figure and their mother figure.”

An ex-actor, Villescas said he fell in love with teaching more than 20 years ago when he stepped in to substitute at a local school for a one-day gig. “I knew that was it.”

Since then, students such as Baez and Caballero still return to check up on their former teacher and to seek his advice.

“I’ve been back here a few times,” Baez said. “I know I can always count on coming here and seeing Mr. V in Room 13.”