Escalante was born in El Paso, Texas, USA. Her family had seven children. She was the second born. Her mother divorced her father. He was not a kind person. Because her mother did not have a job, her father gained custody of all the children. Escalante's mother moved to Los Angeles, California, USA, to live with her sister. Escalante was close to her mother and did not want to live with her father. At age nine, she got on a train to try to get to her mother. The police found her, but her father let her go to California. She moved to Lost Angeles with her mother. She moved during World War II.