How to pronounce persona

1 : a character assumed by an author in a written work. 2a plural personas [New Latin, from Latin] : an individual’s social facade or front that especially in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung reflects the role in life the individual is playing — compare anima.

H is silent in many English words, for various reasons. Not all such words that have come into English from French still have a silent h, however. Over the centuries we have come to pronounce the h in words like horrible, hospital, host, human, and humour.

In practice, yes it is virtually silent unless one makes a special effort to pronounce it. When we have a consonant cluster here /ktl/ one sound is often not heard. The linguistice term for it is “dissimilation”.