Armando Trabanco, Regional Retail Sales Manager

Armando Trabanco, Regional Retail Sales Manager for the SE Florida Market (which covers from Miami-Dade County to Fort Pierce, is a first-generation American. “My parents are both Cubans, and my grandparents are from Spain,” he says. The Hispanic community in South Florida has always been present in his life, but in recent decades it has become the predominant ethnic group in our community. For Armando, seeing the growth in Miami has been wonderful, and diversity is all that he’s known. “As a child, you don’t really think of the [cultural] things that you do as being different from others, but simple things like our breakfasts and holiday celebrations are different,” he says. “Our Anglo friends would celebrate Christmas Eve with turkey and ham. We’ll have roast pork.”

“Most people take the diversity of South Florida for granted, but having been born here, I really get to enjoy those differences and see how they create who we are as a community.”

While his family is Spanish and Cuban, he acknowledges the depth and breadth of Hispanics in South Florida, with every culture from Venezuelan to Nicaragua to Argentina represented. “There are [elements of culture] that bring us together, and things that are really different,” he says. “Most people take [the diversity of South Florida] for granted, but having been here since I was born, I really get to enjoy those differences and see how they create who we are as a community.”

While Hispanic Heritage Month is an exciting time for Armando, he isn’t planning on celebrating it in any specific way—because he celebrates his heritage in small ways every day. Whether it be a small break to grab a café Cubano with a friend or speaking Spanish, his heritage is present in all he does.

Having been in banking for many years, Armando’s Synovus journey began at Florida Community Bank before it merged with Synovus in 2019. “When I joined Synovus, it was a breath of fresh air because we had a wide array of products to better serve our clients—CDs, money market accounts, private wealth, trust, treasury management. It’s been a great experience,” he says.

As someone who is very involved with his community—with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Committee, and who works a lot with financial literacy—Armando jumped at the chance to join Aquí Nos, the Hispanic and Latino employee resource group at Synovus. “Aquí Nos is an excellent opportunity for folks to understand company-wide that we’re all in this together. As a group, we are recognized, and we look forward to our work together for the betterment of our company. It’s an exciting time.” He always tells colleagues, “You have to build your communities, so we can build and grow our bank.”

He encourages his associates and team members to participate, whether Hispanic or not. “It’s beneficial for us to have folks that aren’t in the demographic to participate so they can learn, they can listen, they can understand. We are one family.”

That sense of camaraderie and giving back is vital to Armando and one he tries to bring into his everyday life. He doesn’t give back for the accolades, but rather because people have done it for him, and it’s just simply how he operates as a person. “You have a debt. You have to pay it forward. It’s fulfilling for me to know that I’m helping others succeed. It’s important to give people the same opportunities that were given to me, and then see them turn around and give someone else a hand up.”

He wants the next generation of Hispanic-Americans to know, “we owe the United States the opportunities we have. Be productive and help the country succeed and grow. Whatever it is that we’re working on, we as Hispanics need to do our best to make sure that we are active participants in the success of everything around us,” he says. “You’ve got to earn it, you’ve got to give back, and you’ve got to be part of the success.”