Lenora “Nora” Vásquez-Quinn, President
Rito Seco Records
Ms. Vásquez-Quinn was born in Alamosa and raised partly in San Luis. Her mother’s family (Vásquez) goes back generations in the Valley; her father was an Irish-American schoolteacher from Ohio who came out for a summer job and stayed. She carries both sides: the deep rootedness and the argument-for-sport gene. Nora studied music business at CU Denver and then spent three years in Nashville in her late twenties — enough to understand how the machinery worked. Enough to decide she didn’t want to run it that way.
She came home in her early thirties and founded RSR with a small inheritance and a very clear idea of what she wasn’t going to do. The label has been small, respected, and occasionally infuriating to deal with for almost twenty-five years.
Fifty-seven now, Nora is fast, direct and a little lawyerly. She anticipates the counterargument and takes it apart before you’ve finished making it. She can be funny and profane. She loves Max Unger like a difficult older brother and will roast him to his face without a second thought. She is not interested in being liked by people who aren’t going to listen anyway.
I wanted to make records that sounded like this place. Twenty-five years later, here we are.
Alamosa Sentinel, May 8, 2026
Rito Seco Records 