A passionate dissatisfaction with Spain’s immediate past and a keen awareness of the need for a rebirth of spirit and letters was a mindset held in common by a disparate group of writers later renowned as the Generation of ’98. They also enjoyed a shared love of old towns and the countryside and early poets such as Berceo and Juan Ruiz. This program seeks to understand the icons of that Generation through dramatic readings from Antonio Machado’s El Mañana Efímero and Campos de Castilla, Miguel Unamuno’s La Soledad de la Hispaña Castellana and El Sepulcro de Don Quijote, Pia Baroja’s El Árbol de la Ciencia, José "Azorín" Martínez Ruiz’s Castilla, and other works. (Spanish, 50 minutes)