Luis Argueta is an award-winning Guatemalan American filmmaker known for his multinational immigrant narratives. His coming-of-age film, The Silence of Neto (1994), was Guatemala’s first Oscar submission. His series of immigration documentaries includes abUSed: The Postville Raid (2010), ABRAZOS (2014), The U Turn (2017), and Ausencia (forthcoming). Mr. Argueta has also lectured and served as a consultant and researcher on immigration-related issues.
Mr. Argueta is the only filmmaker to receive the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor, and The Guardian has listed him as one of Guatemala’s National Living Icons. In 2019, he received the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award from the National Peace Corps Association, and he has been named 2021–22 Lund-Gill Chair at Dominican University.