The Public Speaking Cards made for our Communidad.
Public Speaking con Cultura is the perfect tool for anyone looking to improve their speaking skills. Our prompt cards are designed specifically for our community, providing culturally relevant topics and prompts to help you feel confident and prepared to take the stage.
Meet the Author
Yvonne Armenta is a First GenLatina and introverted public speaker with over a decade of experience on the stage. Born and raised in San Francisco, CA, and having traveled to Tarimoro, Guanajuato (her mother’s hometown) every summer growing up, she is deeply connected to and proud of her Mexican roots.
Her speaking career began as a keynote speaker at education-based conferences, sharing her journey with project-based learning to help transform how we assess student knowledge in classrooms, through the power of the spoken word. After earning her Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies and Native American & Indigenous Studies from UC Berkeley, she spent eight years in tech, working in experiential marketing,
internal communications, social impact, and community management. Later, she earned her MBA from San Jose State University, driven by a passion for doing business differently.
In a world that too often misunderstands introversion and overlooks the lived experiences of First Gen Latinas, Yvonne set out to spotlight her own journey as a public speaker, so that others could more confidently embrace their own speaking journey.
Yvonne guides her community to love, reconnect,
and practice the art of public speaking differently, embracing all that makes us unique as the foundation for our practice and presence on stage. She calls it Public Speaking con Cultura.
A Guide to Practice your
Public Speaking con Cultura
Every powerful connection starts with a story, but it can be hard to decide what part of our story we want to share and for what purpose. This section is designed to help you identify those stories, find a storytelling framework that works for you, and use your stories as a tool for connection in your public speaking. Each prompt includes a consejito to guide you in your storytelling practice, should you need it. As you develop your story, tap into your senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste, to bring every story you tell to life.
More than 70% of all communication is nonverbal. This means your posture, gestures, facial expressions, every single movement across your body, matters. This section will explore various aspects of body language to help you become more aware of what your nonverbals are communicating, and to show you the power of getting out of your head and into your body as a way to transform your public speaking. Each prompt will guide you to see and feel how your body is expressing your message, so that your audience can connect with it more deeply.
Have you ever been told you’re too loud? That “calladita te ves más bonita”? Or too quiet? That “your ideas are great, but you should speak up more”? Voice inflection has everything to do with el ritmo de tu voz: how you emphasize certain words, the pace you speak with, and the emotion behind your voice. Every prompt will guide you through a practice that helps you hear how your delivery is impacted by el ritmo, the rhythm, of your voice.
Reciting positive affirmations can be a powerful tool in your public speaking journey, especially in those moments where the nerves start to kick in. Before stepping on stage or beginning your practice session, choose an affirmation at random and recite it. Then, turn it
into a question. For example, if your affirmation is “My voice is powerful” the question is “Is my voice powerful?” This simple step will help you reflect on how true the affirmation feels for you right now, and where you might still be growing.
Shops The Cards
Inspired by our Cultura
Yvonne centers her work around Public Speaking, con Cultura and I wanted to capture the essence of that in this piece. As an artist, my creative process starts with a central theme or element that then inspires the rest of the piece. In this case, I began with the microphone at the center and designed every single aspect around it, by hand, to bring an uniqueness to it that resembles the uniqueness each speaker embodies when they take the stage.
Each element of Yvonne’s vision (chisme, emocion, movimiento, del corazón) is represented in the art. I hope that alongside these carefully crafted public speaking practice prompts, you’re inspired to embrace the art of public speaking and our culturas’ essence in how you practice the art. Like public speaking,your unique experiences are what brings the art to life. This artwork is meant to be interpreted uniquely by you. And, everytime you see this piece, you're meant to see something different; discover a new element that ties back to your public speaking, con cultura.
Con mucho amor,
Gabriela Torres
