The son of a Peruvian father and Spanish mother, Arteta was born in Puerto Rico and spent his teenage years in Costa Rica. He moved to the USA to attend college, where he began making films, including the short "Every Day Is a Beautiful Day", a satire of Hollywood musicals. Arteta then entered the world of filmmaking as a location assistant on Sidney Lumet's "Q & A" (1990) and as a second camera assistant to Jonathan Demme on the documentary "Cousin Bobby" (1991), before heading to Los Angeles to study at the American Film Institute (AFI). Feeling alienated as a Latino and disenchanted with the atmosphere at AFI, which Arteta perceived as full of insiders and/or people willing to sell their mother's souls to make a film, Arteta chose instead to make a film with Latino characters who weren't stereotypical, "Star Maps". After making the film Arteta told the Village Voice he was taking time off to become "aware of my Latin heritage and the pain that that entails".