Malta

Many people have a puzzled look on their face when I mention to them that Anna is half Maltese. The look usually comes from a lack of awareness as to where Malta is located on the map. In fact, I would bet that many of you could not pick out Malta if given a globe, both due to its size and location.

Malta is located 59 miles South of Sicily and only 175 miles North of Africa in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Malta is comprised of seven small and densely populated islands, which have exchanged hands many times over its history due to its strategic location. Sicilians, Phoenecians, Romans, Byzantines and the British have all occupied Malta for great lengths of time during her history, giving its people a deep mix of culture.

Anna’s mom, Rita Portelli (Her maiden name) was born in Silema Malta and still has family there today. Her brother Tony and his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren all live on the island. Anna’s father Edward spent many years working in various parts of the world as a geophysicist in the oil industry. One of this stints had him working and residing in Libya some forty five years ago. During a break from work he and some friends went to Malta for a little sun and fun and the result was him finding his bride Rita!

Anna and her sisters had not been to Malta in nearly 30 years, so when we decided to spend a year in Italy, a trip down South to visit her mothers birthplace and for myself and the kids to better understand their heritage was in order. I suggested to Anna that we go for her 40th birthday and her mom and dad met us there to celebrate. It turned out that Anna’s birthday this year was on Good Friday, so spending the time in Malta over the Easter weekend made for a wonderful family experience.

The Maltese people are predominantly Catholic as a result of it being ruled for many years by the “Knights of St. John” and the biblically historical shipwrecking of St Paul on the island. This of course made for a festive Easter weekend. For the family, the highlight of the five days in Malta was spending Easter Sunday with Rita’s family at her brother’s house. In total there were 26 of us at Easter dinner, which was prepared by Uncle Tony who is in his early 70’s! The day was spent eating and socializing and for me in particular examining the Portelli family makeup.

I have always been intrigued to know more about the Maltese people since it comprises one quarter of my children’s lineage and since the only Maltese person that I know is Rita. Having an opportunity to get to know her family better was nice for me. Fairly quickly, I was able to discern strong similarities in customs and culture to a faction of my side of the family (The Syrian Arabic side). This makes sense of course when you consider that both Phoenicians and Byzantines ruled the island at times in Malta’s history. The revelation that Malta had strong Arabic influence (You can detect this in the way the people look, the sound of their language and the food) quickly made me realize that my children likely have more Middle Eastern blood in them than any other heritage (My father is half Arabic)! In today’s society, this could be perceived by Americans as a negative, but having been around Arabic people my whole life, I was quite proud of this fact.

One of the highlights of the day was taking a walk down Malta’s narrow streets with Trey and sharing with him a bit of the history of Malta so he could better understand his grandmothers nationality and subsequently his own. As the kids get older it is becoming more fun for me to have these types of conversations with them.

The kids had a great time especially on Easter when Anna showed them a secret place that she used to play as a little girl (The rooftop of Uncle Tony’s house). There is a long story that Anna loves to tell about her Uncle Tony’s roof and the rabbit they ate for dinner that night that you will have to ask her about one day (Too long of a story for this blog)

We of course celebrated Anna’s birthday with her family by going out to dinner at a local Maltese Restaurant. The food was quite good. This was the first time that the kids and I had a chance to meet Anna’s family.

The only bummer about the trip was that we didn’t have particularly good weather given the time of year, with high winds and temperatures in the high fifties during the day. We made the most of it however, by enjoying time with Anna’s mom and dad and the extended family. For Anna, the end of her birthday week was full of many childhood memories.