family health was the basis of the nation's "happiness" and "progress." Again, sex education and eugenic principles were often so closely linked. Many Mexican eugenicists sought to establish "educational norms." Motherhood The eugenics movement in Mexico had an intense focus on the role of the mother in cultivating a "fit" child. It was thought that there was an "inherent"' connection between mother and child that, if cultivated properly, would ensure the future of the nation. Puericulture, an idea focused on the role that mothers played in ensuring the "proper" hygiene of the child, shaped eugenic reforms in Mexico. By the late 1920s and the early 1920s, multiple organizations and societies had been created to focus on the role of eugenics in caring for a child. The First Mexican Congress of the Child was held in 1921. Issues that were eugenic and sexual in nature were brought to the attention of the attendees, such as maternal health and the sterilization of criminals. In 1929, the Mexican Society of Puericulture (Sociedad Mexicana de Puericultura) emerged as another society influenced by eugenics. By then, the Society of Puericulture had created a branch dedicated to eugenics and addressed sex education, infantile sexuality, and disease in relation to caring for a child. The government was also preoccupied with the importance of puericulture. The Public Health Department's School Hygiene Service offered childcare education classes for women, went into poor communities to educate new mothers about infant hygiene, and built playgrounds. Sterilization In December 1932, the state of Veracruz passed the only eugenic sterilization law that has ever existed in Latin America. Proponents of the law advocated for it because sterilization was supposedly in the interest of the species, race, and home.When Adalberto Tejeda returned to the Veracruz governorship in 1928, eugenics was integrated into his policy. He believed that prostitution, religious institutions, and alcoholism prevented the formation of fit national citizens. In 1930, he attempted to eliminate prostitution with Law 362, which sanctioned the state to "locate and treat" Veracruz citizens who have been diagnosed with venereal diseases. In Jalapa, women were rounded up, imprisoned, and then forcibly treated for venereal disease as part of a eugenic effort to eliminate prostitution and its "negative" health effects. Two years later, Tejeda built upon the attempt at eugenic population control and treatment with the passage of two laws. Law 121 founded the Section of Eugenics and Mental Hygiene