Ignorance persists, Ms. Meng said, relating how a congressional colleague recently asked her what currency was used in Puerto Rico. But more alarming, she said, is the “super-offensive rhetoric” now emanating from “one person.”  “That’s really terrifying,” Ms. Meng added. “We need to combat hate speech — we are all American.”  Ms. Mark-Viverito named the person: Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has said he wants to build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants out and has proposed banning Muslims from entering the country. She said he had spurred many Latinos to register to vote against him. This climate, she said, should be galvanizing for female leaders.  “We don’t have enough women in elected office,” Ms. Mark-Viverito said, adding that only 14 of the 51 Council members are women, compared with 18 a decade ago. “It’s not a good reflection of us in the city.”  After the opening remarks, trainers facilitated discussions of American values, identity and xenophobia, as well as fund-raising. The weekend built toward the Saturday afternoon development of stump speeches. In small groups, invited elected officials and staff members gave gentle critiques of the participants’ performance, less “American Idol” than “New American Aspirant.”  Some women were poised and ready to deliver; others looked nervously at their notes. Almost all forgot to repeat their names at the end and tell people to vote for them.  One of the judges was Councilman Carlos Menchaca, a Democrat from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and the first Mexican-American elected official in New York. Once a graduate of this same training, he is now a board member of New American Leaders Project.  Mr. Menchaca said that when he first started his own training to run, he did not realize that there was a formula to giving a stump speech; the key was to make it look as though there was none.  “The goal of the speech is not to solve all the world’s problems,” he told six women in his group. “It’s to connect to people.”  Samelys Lopez, 36, an affordable-housing activist who once lived with her mother in a homeless shelter, spoke of being teased by schoolchildren for that, and of finding a new life in the Bronx thanks to governmental assistance.  Mr. Menchaca urged her to relate her experience to current events.  “Homelessness in New York City is an epidemic, a problem that everyone’s feeling right now,” he said. “If you can summon the city feeling in your own story, that not a lot of people can do, that will make a connection.”  Ms. Lopez, who graduated from Barnard College and earned a master’s degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, is planning to run for Democratic district leader in the 78th District in the Bronx this fall. (She first must collect 500 signatures to qualify for the ballot.)  Ms. Lopez said she wanted to further the liberal movement after campaigning for Bernie Sanders. She was surprised how many Latino and black residents in the South Bronx said they were voting for Mr. Trump.  “The same issues that bothered them — poverty, inequality, lack of educational resources — these are progressive values,” Ms. Lopez said. “I told them, you have more in common with us.”  She said she was born in Puerto Rico, and her mother, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic without a high school diploma, worked in a sewing factory in New York. “We’re hardworking people. We have pride in where we come from,” Ms. Lopez said. “Isn’t that what being American is? The power of overcoming adversity, and being the best you can be with little resources.”  At times, the training took on the air of a sorority meeting — a room full of young women clapping in unison to show attention and snapping their fingers to show affirmation.  Other times it felt like a support group, with women telling their family’s painful story of immigration, of abuse, of resilience. Tears fell and napkins were passed.  As the conference was winding to a close on Sunday, Ms. Bhojwani stepped out of the room, encouraged and yet concerned.  “What this affirms is that if women have a space where their voices are validated, they will speak out,” she said.  “The thing that I’m struggling with is how can we take this affirmation, and strength and solidarity that a women’s-only space provides, and carry that into spaces that are coed.”  A version of this article appears in print on June 15, 2016, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: For Women With Immigrant Roots, the A B C’s of Running for Office. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
At a Manhattan conference that attracted 29 future candidates from around the country, speakers stressed connecting with voters.