he New York area is home to a significant community from the Mediterranean island nation of Malta who speak Maltese, a distinctive Semitic language with influence from Italian and other languages. Earlier community estimates for the Maltese population around New York have been as high as 20,000, with emigration peaking around the 1960s due to the island government’s encouragment and many who arrived eventually working in the city’s building-related trades. Many Maltese New Yorkers initially lived on the lower west and east sides of Manhattan, with some in Brooklyn and Astoria later a focal point. Today the Maltese Center in Astoria, the community’s last remaining kazin (club) which opened in 1982, counts approximately 200 members. Open twice a week for socializing over pastizzi at a small bar as well as outdoor bocce games next to a storied fig tree (it-tina), the Center also hosts Leyla Malti (Maltese evenings with skits and short plays) as well as language classes for both children and adults. At the Center, Maltese is still actively spoken in its many dialects, which often vary from town to town, with many from the island of Gozo and some New York-born speakers. In Astoria, the Maltese find themselves in a matrix of Italian, Arabic, and Greek influences not unlike those on their homeland.