Luis Argueta Women’s Studies Lecture

In Guatemala, high levels of violence against indigenous women and girls and widespread impunity drive many women to migrate irregularly to the United States. Women’s Justice Initiative (WJI) works to reduce violence against indigenous women and girls through a community-based model of women’s empowerment and leadership offered in their native language. This helps to reduce violence against indigenous women and girls as well as the resulting momentum to migrate irregularly.

Luis Argueta is a Guatemalan American award-winning filmmaker known for his multinational immigrant narratives. His coming-of-age film, The Silence of Neto, is Guatemala’s 1st Oscar submission and is credited as being the inspiration for many of Guatemala’s current young filmmakers. The Guardian newspaper listed Mr. Argueta as one of Guatemala’s National Living Icons, alongside Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu.

Argueta is the only filmmaker to receive the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor. In 2019, he received the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award from the National Peace Corps Association and was the 2021-2022 Lund-Gill Chair at Dominican University. At the Guadalajara International Film Festival, 2021, he received the The Mayahuel International Guest of Honor Award. He has been a researcher and consultant for Migration Policy Institute since 2017. His series of immigration documentaries:  abUSed: The Postville Raid, ABRAZOS, The U Turn, and Ausencia have made him a noted lecturer on immigration.  His  films can be viewed on-line at www.luisarguetaa.com. 

Co-sponsored by Assumption University’s Women’s Studies Program, Racial and Ethnic Studies Minor, Latin American and Latino Studies Program, Global Studies Program, Sociology and Criminology Department, and Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department.