"He looked at my work and asked if I made them," Lozano said, recalling the words he heard from Joaquín López Antay, Peru's best retablo maker of the day. "He told me someday I would be better than him and his three sons. He said I would go very far with my art."

Those words echoed with new clarity for Lozano when he was recognized last month with $20,000 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is only the second recipient of the award from Utah. Lozano is one of 11 artists to be named 2008 National Heritage Fellows, recognizing traditional and folk art.

"I love that story," Lozano said, recalling the day he and and his parents traveled for three hours from Huamanga, their village in Peru's remote region of Ayacucho, to display his artwork for a religious holiday. "It's a beautiful story."

The Utah transplant received the national recognition for his knowledge and craftsmanship in making Peruvian retablos. "He has simultaneously shed new light on what it is to be an artist living in Utah and drawn positive attention to his culture," said Margaret Hunt, director of the Utah Arts Council. "We consider him among the top of what we hope to be a growing line of artists who embrace their talents and follow them to sucess."

Lozano, 58, has lived in Salt Lake City for 15 years. He arrived in the country touring with a folk dance group and liked what he saw, enough to decide to stay in Utah after the tour, later becoming a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He began making retablos - brightly colored boxes with hinged doors filled with dioramas - when he was 6 years old, and his methods haven't changed much since he was a boy. He still uses a mixture of plaster and flour for the figurines, decorating them with bright watercolor or acrylic paints, depicting historical and religious stories through the arrangement of the diorama scenes.

"It's an art that I brought with me from my culture," Lozano said. Since relocating, Lozano began including scenes of his new life in Utah and has traveled across the state teaching techniques of retablo-making, hoping to keep the skill alive.

"This award energizes all of us as Latinos," he said. "It's a recognition, not just for me, but for the whole Spanish-speaking community."

In Peru, Lozano was a professor of art, exhibiting his work in Peruvian and other South American museums. In Utah, the freelance artist pays bills by working as a janitor. He plans to use the award money for a retirement fund, as well as to promote his art.

It hasn't always been easy, "but you come to this country to achieve something even if that means going through difficulties," Lozano said.