Gibraltar’s Maltese origins

The work of Maltese writer David Arrigo who has catalogued Gibraltar’s Maltese origins in a new book, is praised by the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana. The book will also be launched in Malta later this year. From Malaga's Euro Weekly:

..Caruana, himself of Maltese origin, complimented the work, undertaken by David Arrigo over two and a half years, at the launch of the book in the Garrison Library.
“His large amount of research shows the huge influence of the Maltese on our society and culture,” said Caruana. He recognised the similarities between Malta and Gibraltar saying the Rock is ‘a microcosm of the Maltese’ especially as both have strong British heritage and background.

Arrigo affirmed this link, stating that two-thirds of the Gibraltarian population have Maltese origins. “People in Gibralter do not know enough about their origins. They should use the tidbits of information in my book to follow up on their roots,” said Arrigo.

More from The Gibraltar News Online:

Despite the fact that the books had not arrived the launch went ahead amidst great expectation that their arrival would be imminent. Its author David Arrigo presented the Chief Minister with a copy of a large photograph of Malta from 1870, the original of which belonged to his grandfather whose name is rather familiar to those of us who read the Chronicle pages because his name was the same as that of Chronicle photographer Johnny Bugeja, who was present at the launch as were many well known personalities who share that common bond with Malta.

“The book tries to contain the Maltese element which is in Gibraltar and identify it,” he told everyone present, and hoped it would encourage Gibraltarians to trace some of their relatives in Malta. Mr Arrigo describes the book as first highlighting the 19th century Maltese migration to Gibraltar. The book written by David Arrigo from Malta is an updated version of a book originally published by Alister Macmillan in 1915 entitled Malta and Gibraltar Illustrated.

Chief Minister Peter Caruana said that one third of people in Gibraltar had a surname of Maltese origin or extraction – this he said “was a rough guide of the huge influence which Malta as a country of origin has had on the make-up of the people of Gibraltar”. Mr Caruana commented how David Arrigo had always been a huge fan of the link which has always existed between Gibraltar and Malta and had worked hard even before he started writing the book to update the 1915 book and effectively create a modern day record. Mr Caruana said he had never been to Malta before this year but it soon all became too familiar to him.

"Even before reaching Malta, I flew out on Air Malta, where I had a complimentary copy of the Times of Malta. I opened one page and there was an article about how badly the youth had behaved on Halloween, turning the page another article lambasted the government for giving too much development land to wealthy residents and not enough for affordable housing. When I got to the letters page I really could have been reading the The Gibraltar Chronicle any day of the week. So wherever we go we Maltese certainly know how to be polemic, and just by reading the newspaper I felt the community had to be a mirror image of our socio-logical and chemistry of a people."

Mr Caruana spoke of the similarities he found in the make-up of the people in Malta, and of the huge cultural and historical links through Britain. He said he hoped the links with Malta would continue, and although 100 years later families, like his own with origins in Malta would trace their family members. Congratulating Mr Arrigo on his achievement he called the book “compulsive buying and reading” for all the many people who have the Maltese connection. The book is available locally at local bookshops. It will receive similar launches in London and Malta later this year.

More books on the Malta-Gibraltar connection