Stowe, the first of three children, was born at the Queen of Angels Hospital, in Los Angeles, California and raised in Eagle Rock, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her father, Robert Stowe, was a civil Engineer from Oregon, while her mother, Mireya (née Mora Steinvorth), came from a prominent family in Costa Rica. One of Stowe's maternal great-great-grandfathers, Politician José Joaquín Mora Porras, was a younger brother of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, who governed Costa Rica from 1849 to 1859. Another maternal great-great-grandfather, Bruno Carranza, was briefly President of that country in 1870 (he resigned three months after taking power); his wife, Stowe's great-great-grandmother Gerónima Montealegre, was the sister of President José María Montealegre Fernández, who governed Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863. One of Stowe's maternal great-grandfathers was a German immigrant to Costa Rica.