Oh to be a fly on the wall in Venezuela, as the new parents were cradling their son, and Mom shot Dad a death stare when he declared he wanted to name the boy after the Marxist Russian writer Maxim Gorky.

So, Hector it was.

But when Hector had a son of his own, he picked the name Gorkys, not because he was a Communist, not because he wanted to please his father. He thought it exuded strength.

Thirty years later, Gorkys Hernandez is fomenting a revolution in San Francisco. The Giants’ center fielder is attempting to prove that a career backup outfielder suddenly can become a productive everyday player in the major leagues.

Hernandez also wants to stir the proletariat to like him — finally — and not be angry with the Giants for keeping him at the expense of prospect Steven Duggar, who might spend the entire summer in Sacramento honing his bat.

Hernandez hopes to win over fans who feel his mere presence on the roster is the ultimate example of the organization’s affection for older players and journeymen and past glories at the expense of progress and youth.

Let’s just say social media and radio talk shows have not been kind to Gorkys Hernandez.

“Sometimes you’re going to hear and read something,” he said in the dugout at AT&T Park this week. “If your mind is strong, you say, ‘I’m going to change their minds.’ If they say something bad about me, I want them to say in the second half, or next year, ‘Gorkys is doing a great job.’ That’s my mentality.”

Even Hernandez’s biggest critics have to be pleased with the way he wrested the everyday center-field job from ineffective newcomer Austin Jackson, bringing speed and a terrific glove to an outfield that lacks both, all while contributing at the plate.

In his third year with the Giants, Hernandez is hitting .283 with a career-best six home runs (after hitting none last year). He had raised his average to .327 on May 28 but will ride a 3-for-28 slide into Friday night’s game against the Nationals in Washington.

Now, Hernandez faces the challenge of reversing the slide, to show he just needed a day off to rest and has not begun a conversion from carriage back to pumpkin; that he really is more than the journeyman who spent time with the Tigers, Braves, Pirates, Marlins, Royals, White Sox and Pirates again before the Giants signed him to a minor-league deal in October 2015.

Manager Bruce Bochy has liked the glove for a long time and believes in the bat.

“Gorkys has always been a gifted defender,” Bochy said. “The hitting part has been questionable. He showed last year he can hit major-league pitching and he’s doing it again.”

Hernandez did not show it until the second half of 2017. He was hitting .160 around Memorial Day and .229 at the All-Star break. He raised his average as high as .273 in the second half before a rough September. Only later did the team reveal that Hernandez played the final month with a fractured hamate in his hand.

That injury ordinarily sends hitters to the operating room immediately. Hernandez played through it and had the operation in October.

“I wanted everyone to know I could play in pain,” he said. “When I had the opportunity to play, I said I can control the pain with adrenaline when I go onto the field. I can be strong.”

Hernandez’s background required strength, too.

His father left when Gorkys was a young boy, leaving mom Norelis to raise three children as a taxi driver who left the house at 5 a.m. and did not return until suppertime.

Gorkys, the oldest, worked in an aunt’s car wash after school to help make ends meet. Like so many children in Latin America with athletic talent, Hernandez saw baseball as a way to help his family. He was 17 when he signed with the Tigers for $19,000.

His career path also was typical for so many who sign that young. The physical ability did not translate into sustained success. He reached the majors by 2012 with the Pirates, but two summers later found himself back in Venezuela, the father of three young children, without a job.

A 24-game stint in the Mexican League proved pivotal. He hit .378. That and a good winter-ball season in Venezuela got him another shot with the Pirates in 2015. A year later, the Giants signed him.

Hernandez’s manager at Triple-A Sacramento knew all about Hernandez’s defense. Jose Alguacil, also Venezuelan, remembers coaching third base in a winter-league game and sending two runners to their demises at the plate in the same inning. Hernandez threw both of them out from center field.

“He’s one of those players who always opened your eyes and you question how come this guy hasn’t been able to establish himself in the big leagues. Because you see all the tools,” Alguacil said.

Alguacil asked Hernandez that very question at the start of the 2016 Triple-A season. The player had no answer, but Alguacil did, at least partially. He heard from sources around the game that Hernandez did not necessarily possess the proper attitude.

Hernandez’s body language in times of strife was terrible. He developed a reputation as a sulker, which can be a job killer.

Alguacil said he was determined to ride Hernandez on all fronts, to make him a better hitter and smooth the intangibles. Alguacil told Hernandez that by the end of the season, Hernandez would either love him or hate him.

By the end of the 2016 season, Hernandez was a starting outfielder for the Giants in their Division Series against the Cubs.

Two years later, Hernandez is the everyday center fielder — at least until Duggar gets the call — for a team with playoff aspirations. Hernandez’s body language is terrific, especially in those camera poses the outfielders make after the final out of a win. Hernandez does not get to pick the poses. Andrew McCutchen does.

Hernandez has the confidence to believe he is good enough in center field to make a name for himself throughout baseball in his 30s.

“If I get to be there in center field every day, I think I have the opportunity to win a Gold Glove,” he said.

Strong words from a player with a strong name and, as Giants fans are discovering, an even stronger game.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman