[OS X TeX] \documentclass undefined

[Vince Filby]

Hello,

I have been using LaTeX for years under Debian Linux with teTeX.  I
recently moved to OS X and I am having trouble getting my thesis to
compile.  Whenever I try to run 'latex' on my fille it tells me that
'\documentclass' is an undefined control sequence.  As far as I know
this is what happens when you try to run plain TeX on a LaTeX file.

Just in case there was something in my custom cls file I created a
small sample, shown below, and I compiled it with latex.  The same
result occured and is also shown below.

Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem? 

Thanks in advance,

Vince

test.tex:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
THis is a test
\end{document}

latex test:
This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.141592-1.20a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.3)
output format initialized to PDF
entering extended mode
(./test.tex
! Undefined control sequence.
l.1 \documentclass
                  {article}
?
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