Born June 24, 1918 in El Oro, a mining town in the state of Mexico where his father worked as a miner. After the death of his mother when Escobedo was 3, he and his three brothers went to live with their grandmother in Mexico City. There he attended a religious school for three years, after which he entered a public primary school, where he completed a six year course.
When he was ten years old he entered the "Santiago Revuill Open-Air School of Painting," which was directed by Gabriel Fernández Ledesma. Everardo Ramirez was his teacher. After studying there for six years he entered the San Carlos Central School of Plastic Arts, and the Workers' Art School. He studied stage design with G. F. Ledesma. 1935: assistant to the restorer of the Museum of Popular Art of the Department of Fine Arts, Mexico City. 1935-38: member of the League of Revolutionary Artists and Writers (L.E.A.R.). 1937: joined T.G.P.. Married to an American teacher and has one son. 1937-47: worked in Publicity Department of the Ministry of Public Education, Mexico. 1945-46: In the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship, where he produced a collection of 8 lithographs of New York City. 1946: illustrated "Lecturas Hispano-Americanas", a Spanish textbook for United States students. Painted frescoes in primary school in Lexington, New York.