Perfecto "Perf" de Castro is a multi-awarded Filipino musician, currently focusing on Classical and Flamenco music played on the Ten-string guitar, but perhaps best known for having been a celebrated fixture in the Philippine alternative rock scene during the 1990s. During the course of that decade, he was one of the Original members of the alternative rock band Rivermaya, founded the band Triaxis, and also collaborated with the seminal Filipino rapper Francis Magalona and Filipino hard rock band Wolfgang.
His most notable awards as a musician include the 1998 Katha Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance and Composition and the 1998 NU Rock Award for Guitarist of the Year. He is also widely recognized as a talented album producer and sound engineer, with his work including the multi-platinum albums of Wolfgang (“Semenelin”) Francis M (Freeman and Freeman II) and Marc Velasco (eponymous). For this he received numerous accolades, including the Producer of the Year Award in the 1998 NU 107 Rock Awards and the 2001 Awit Award for Best Rap Recording for a song done in collaboration with Magalona.
The de Castro surname is used by a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin. Soon after the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition, members of the family emigrated to Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hamburg, and various cities in the Netherlands. Their descendants were later to be found scattered throughout Egypt, France, Germany, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, Panama, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Some branches of the family have continued to bear the simple name of de Castro, others are known by de Castro-Osório, de Castro Sarmento, de Castro-Castello-Osório, Pereira de Castro, de Castro Vieira de Pinto, Rodrigues de Castro, Orobio de Castro, de Castro de Paz, Henriques de Castro, etc. The name often appears as "de Crasto." Note that Castro is not in origin Jewish but an Iberian Christian name, adopted by some Portuguese and Spanish Jews after the forced conversions of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.