Daughter of an English mother and Mexican father, Helen Escobedo studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1951 to 1954. From 1961 to 1979 she was the director of the Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes (MUCA), and the Galería Universitaria Aristos at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

Escobedo created around 30 works of monumental sculpture, located in Chapultepec Forest (Mexico), the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Bethanien Art House) in Berlin, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in New Orleans, and the Helsinki City Art Museum (Finland), among others.