Maltese Midwestern: What you should know about Pete Buttigieg

Michael Bugeja | Iowa View contributor

I first learned about Pete Buttigieg when my son Shane spotted his name in a 2017 news article about candidates for chair of the Democratic National Committee. “He’s Maltese!”

There’s no mistaking a name like Buttigieg (pronounced Bood-eh-jedge — not “Buddha-judge” or “Boot-a-judge”).

The latest Des Moines Register poll shows Buttigieg in the lead among likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25 percent saying he is their first choice for president. Rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren lag about 10 percentage points behind him.

I figured it is time that Iowans get to know Mayor Pete’s heritage, and I’m the likely person to do so.

Buttigieg ranks as the 42nd-most common name in Malta, an island country south of Italy. Bugeja ranks as 25th. There are about 300 Buttigiegs in the United States and about 200 Bugejas.

When asked how to pronounce his name, Buttigieg does what I do with mine (pronounced Boo-JAY-ah — not “Bug-a-jug” or “Boo-GAY-sha”). He softens the syllables “Bood-edge-edge” and tells people just to call him Mayor Pete. I say “Boo-SHAY-ah” but my Iowa State students just call me “Dr. B.”

The surname Buttigieg is common in Malta’s sister island Gozo. The “tigieg” in his name means poultry.

There are lots of Buttigiegs in Qala, Gozo, about 2.6 miles from my family’s ancestral home of Għajnsielem, where there are plenty of Bugejas, along with a popular fish market.

There is another Maltese mayor more popular than Pete in Qala. His name is Paul Buttigieg, elected in May.

The Buttigieg campaign has run promotions for “Pizza with Pete” at his favorite joint in South Bend. I refused to enter.

Pizza is Italian; pastizzi is Maltese. It’s our national food, a cheese-filled pastry that we typically consume with tea. It’s time-consuming to make, so when friends ask for the recipe, I direct them to my YouTube video.

I’ve offered to send pastizzi to the Buttigieg campaign, but haven’t heard back.

Mayor Pete is proud of his Maltese heritage, as am I. He rejected recommendations to change his surname to his middle name, Montgomery, to help him become more electable.

Buttigieg and I were raised in Maltese households. I’m 30 years older than Buttigieg, whose late father, Joseph was a celebrated English professor at Notre Dame.

Dr. Buttigieg took his family to Malta regularly. Older colleagues at the University of Malta still remember his son as a smart and occasionally rambunctious boy, knowing he would someday make a name for himself (irony intended). But no one anticipated Mayor Pete’s meteoric rise.

Being underdog is part of Maltese culture.

The archipelago is 122 square miles with a population of about 493,559. That’s comparable to Des Moines at 82.6 square miles with less than half of Malta’s population.

In 1565, about 2,000 Knights Hospitallers and 4,000 Maltese inhabitants repelled the invading Ottoman Empire, which suffered casualties of 25,000-35,000 in the Great Siege. In World War II, Hitler launched another great siege between 1940-42 and failed to take the islands, dooming Erwin Rommel’s North African corps, which changed the course and strategy of the war.

It is easy to underestimate a Maltese person, which is why I won’t do that with Mayor Pete.

He may win our caucus but pundits say his chances thereafter are poor. According to one account, Buttigieg has the support of a scant 2 percent of Hispanic Democrats nationwide and 2 percent of black Democrats in South Carolina and Super Tuesday states.

One of my Maltese friends calls Buttigieg “the anti-Trump.” His age, marriage, wealth and politics are polar opposites from that of President Donald J. Trump.

Buttigieg supports Medicare for those who want it. He has courted labor unions and wants to address climate change, institute background checks for gun purchases and create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants.

His candidacy is being closely followed in the European Union, to which Malta belongs. Carmen Sammut, a pro rector at the University of Malta and political communications expert, says Buttigieg is “articulate, erudite, fresh and presents an antidote to Trumpism,” especially with his inspirational sense of public service.

Sammut addresses what many in America believe is a shortcoming — Buttigieg’s lack of national and international experience. “Mayor Pete is deeply engaged with international affairs,” she says, “and he is aware that the United States and Europe need to realign so that they reverse the erosion of the human rights morality.”

I’m a fiscal conservative and social liberal — the type of Iowan (and perhaps American) that Buttigieg is recruiting to his camp. I believe he will continue to surprise us as underdog in a kennel of Democratic billionaires and divisive progressives.

There is one thing, though, that his campaign lacks: pastizzi. Will it be on the menu of the 2020 Iowa State Fair?

Michael Bugeja, distinguished professor of journalism at Iowa State, is a dual citizen of the United States and Malta. These views are his own.