Gabriel (left) and Efrain Escobar (right) inside Efrain’s shop, Escobar Tailors, in Pleasant Hill.
Gabriel (left) and Efrain Escobar (right) inside Efrain’s shop, Escobar Tailors, in Pleasant Hill. Credit: Ricky Rodas

The Escobar family has lived through a lot: war, typhoid fever, political unrest, economic upheaval, and immigrating from Bolivia to the Bay Area. But throughout these challenges, three generations of Escobars have honed their skills as master tailors, working for some of the biggest names in fashion, as well as running their own businesses in Oakland and Pleasant Hill.

Last September, we wrote about how Gabriel Escobar is continuing the legacy of his father, mother, and grandfather—all expert tailors—at his shop on Telegraph Avenue in Temescal. In this audio feature produced for KALW, we get to hear Escobar and his father delve deeper into the origins of their family craft.

Ricky Rodas is The Oaklandside’s small business reporter. He produced this audio story as part of an ongoing radio fellowship at KALWwhere it aired on Crosscurrents.

Ricky Rodas is a member of the 2020 graduating class of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Before joining The Oaklandside, he spent two years reporting on immigrant communities in the Bay Area as a reporter for the local news sites Oakland North, Mission Local, and Richmond Confidential. Rodas, who is Salvadoran American and bilingual, is on The Oaklandside team through a partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.